Youths lose interest in cars

Before I got my license in high school, I'd pay a guy a dollar a week to swing by and pick me up for school. That covered his gas, no problem. Probably plus some.

Now, gas is so dang expensive, that's got to be a detriment for a kid with no or little income owning a car. It's not the cost of the car, it's the cost of driving it week-to-week.

Also, I know in my state, a license is a bit harder to come by for a young driver than it was for me.

 

I'm really interested to see what happens when this current crop of teenagers hit the workforce in about 5-10 years. They're obsessed with their stupid phones ("LOOK AT WHAT THIS AP CAN DO!" Who gives a flying fuck?), they have parents who do almost everything for them, they think "LOL" is a fucking word, and now they're too unmotivated to learn to drive. My ex-girlfriend's son is 17 and we live in a not-urban section of the state. She bought a newer car in September and held onto her old one for him to drive when he gets his license. problem is, he doesn't care if he gets his license. Much like a typical teenager, he doesn't like practicing parallel parking so he doesn't like practicing driving. Meanwhile this car, which she could sell and get a couple of bucks for, rots, while she runs around like a crazy person ushering him to his job, after-school activities, etc.

 

You don't need a car to have a good time. Just find a good lawn to stand on.

 

Kids have become so brainwashed by their Prious driving liberal teachers that they don't want to ruin the environment.
The thrill of the automobile is gone.

 

Three high school friends of mine were killed in car wrecks during high school or within a year of graduating.

 

From "The Other Guys"

"We found your Prius, it was trying to vote for Ralph Nader."

"I feel like we are literally driving around in a vagina."

 

Growing up in California, I feel fortunate that I was able to buy a cheap car and be fine.

Where I live, I would want my kids to have as SUV to drive in the weather.

 

Like me, they probably can't afford good green fluid.

 

It's moments like this that I realize what an old man I am.

That is SO far from my thinking on the matter when I was 16, it's unreal. I lived to get my driver's license. And my best memories of high school were 6-8 of my friends piling into my car and just driving with no real destination, just being by ourselves with the tape deck playing, for hours at a time.

And I loved going to the outer reaches of our coverage area when I was writing, so I could drive and make my way around new areas.

Only thing we think alike on is car maintenance. I've never had any interest in the inner workings of the car, or what was the cooler car. The cool car was the one with a full tank of gas.

 

My son is 14 and can't wait to get a car. Of course, he thinks we will buy him a Mustang or Camaro and winces at the fact that if he gets anything, it's my Toyota Matrix and I'd get the new vehicle.

As others have said, one problem for kids is that there is little inventory of cheap used cars. Vehicles last longer and people aren't flipping them as often.

 

I got my learner's permit the day I turned 16 and got my license 3 months and 5 days later (yes, I actually remember the date I got my license). In my state, you couldn't get an unrestricted license until you turned 18 (I think the main restriction was no driving after 9 p.m. except for school functions or work) unless you took a certain number of hours of drivers' ed. Then you could get it at 17. So I took drivers' ed after I had my license so I could have the unrestricted license. I loved driving then and I love it now.

I was the first of my friends to get a license. My best friend didn't get hers until we were 18. She was a terrible driver then and still is. Luckily, she lives in NYC and doesn't have to drive. I didn't have a car until I was out of college, but there was pretty much always one of my parents' cars I could use.

I guess cars used to mean freedom for kids. If you wanted to experience the world, you had to get out into it. Not so much these days.

 

Nearly 20 years later, my parents would stroke out if they knew the distances I covered the first year I was licensed. It was nothing to go 100-150 miles one way, across state lines even, just to see what I could see.